Evacuees camped at gas station longing for home

Jun. 17, 2012

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Before jumping in his pick-up truck to escape a midnight wildfire, Steve Den had time to grab only his 14-year-old poodle and a can of Copenhagen tobacco.

One week later, he’s still camping outside Ted’s Place, a gas station and convenience store at the intersection of two highways 10 miles east of his Poudre Canyon home while the 55,050-acre High Park Fire burns.

Other than the occasional trip to town for a toothbrush and other necessities, he and his friend Tom White — who evacuated with his Chihuahua, Lupe — have just been waiting to go home.

“As soon as they open that gate, we’re gone,” White, a retired pipefitter, said Saturday. “I imagine it’s going to be a total moonscape up there. It’ll be black.”

Except, Den added, for the “oasis” that is Poudre Park.

The two said they’re proud of the volunteer firefighters from their community who stayed to save it. They’ve heard updates from emergency personnel who stop by the store. They’ve heard of rock falls and hot spots, and trees melted into roads with other debris. But they’re told their homes are OK.

Den, a retired elementary-school teacher, said he looks forward to kissing the ground, then sitting and watching the river.

They said the electricity to their homes has been out since the night of the evacuation June 9, and they expect to return to stinking messes in their refrigerators. White has pork chops, chicken and hamburger that have been spoiling the past week.

“You never get that smell out of there,” he said.

About 25 miles away, Paul Block also has set up camp after evacuating his home in Glacier View Meadows. The research ecologist who works at Colorado State University said he took a week off work, preparing his home by digging fire lines since the fire began June 9 and camping since evacuating Thursday.

The resident of the subdivision’s 12th filing stayed with a friend in an other area until it was evacuated, and he’s now camping on an acquaintance’s property.

“Neighbors take care of neighbors,” said Barbara Beyers, who evacuated her home in the 11th filing of Glacier View Meadows.

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She and her husband, Bruce, are staying at a friend’s home in a nonevacuated part of the neighborhood. They were ready to go when they received evacuation notice Thursday.

“It really freaked our dog out,” she said.

Duke, an 11-year-old Australian shepherd, didn’t enjoy the smell of smoke, the foggy air and the flashing emergency lights as the three left their home late Thursday night, she said.

On Thursday, the Beyers helped serve bratwursts to firefighters returning from the lines at the Glacier View Meadows Homeowners Association headquarters.

Barbara Beyers said she expressed appreciation to “as many as I could thank.”

She said there’s no way the fire would’ve been stopped without their help.

Meanwhile, the Father’s Day weekend of fishing and barbecuing the Beyers had planned to spend outside with their two daughters has been canceled. Instead, they’ll probably go out in Fort Collins.

While she’s comfortable the home will be OK, Barbara Beyers said it would be nice to be home.

“I would have let the firefighters in to take showers, and maybe take a beer,” she said, laughing.